NFL players MUST look out for their own safety

One of the biggest businesses in America likes to pretend it isn’t. The National Football League remains at the top of the sports mountain in America despite numerous controversies on a yearly basis. The high intensity of the violence, rarity of regular season games compared to the other major sports, and the speed of the action has helped make the NFL a multi-billion dollar force. The players who play the game quickly learn that they are disposable even if they are first round draft picks on their team as their teammates are released on a seemingly weekly basis. Although great players in every sport are important parts of every sports league, the NFL arguably treats its labor force the worse and pretend that it cares about the safety of the NFL players. It is important for all NFL players to realize that they have to look out for their own safety in many ways.

Player holdouts are common summer occurrences in the NFL. The lack of guaranteed contracts and high injury risk lead to some players deciding to try to exercise some leverage regarding their current contractual situation with their team. Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell has taken one of the strongest steps an NFL player has ever done by sitting out the 2018 NFL season rather than sign the one year, $14.5 million franchise tag contract that the Steelers tagged him with. It appears that he believes that racking another year of a huge workload isn’t worth that salary so he will likely be able to pursue a larger contract in free agency next year despite missing an entire year and being a year older at position where aging is the toughest. He is looking out for his safety and trying to maximize his financial earnings even if fans and media are upset with him.

One of the most anticipated matchups of the 2018 NFL season is the matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and Kansas City in Mexico City. That matchup will no longer be in Mexico City over massive concerns about the football field conditions in Mexico City. There were thoughts that the NFL was dead set on playing the game before many players on both Los Angeles and Kansas City were potentially considering sitting the game out for safety reasons. Yet another case where the players have to look out for their own safety.

The NFL has implemented numerous rules to increase player safety while emphasizing the Thursday Night Football games that potentially increase the risk of player injuries. Strangely, NFL fans often side with billionaire owners over NFL players who are much more like them when it comes to NFL players trying to minimize safety risk while maximizing their financial leverage. Ultimately, NFL players need to look out for themselves from a safety standpoint in the most brutal sport in America while ignoring the anger from fans and media who tend to look at them from jealous perspectives at times.